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Maverick
Maverick Tabernacle is a Tiefling Cleric who is a social worker by trade, currently serving with the crew of The Ellipses. He is on a mission to destroy the Tools of the Primordial Ancients and stop them from falling into selfish hands. Ancestry Maverick's grandparents were members of a nomadic Human cult that roamed the rural, arid regions of Pteris. Members of this cult lived highly regimented and disciplined lives, avoiding interaction with outsiders whenever possible and dealing with all matters of the mind and heart in a democratic manner. One of the young men in the tribe completely swept a girl off her feet, but the cult voted to forbid any relationship between them, judging them to be an unpalatable match. The girl was devastated and, during the shade of night and at her lowest point, a Devil creature appeared to her and offered up a deal that would allow the young lovers to be together "for a price." It felt like any price was worth it, so she accepted the offer and formed a blood pact with the creature. There was no obvious effect right away, but within the week it became plain to see she was now bearing her lover's child. The Devil had tricked her. Disgusted by this blatant affront to their democratic values, the cult excommunicated the couple and their families took an oath of silence against them. They traveled together in exile, wandering across the continent until at last she birthed a daughter. It was immediately clear, however, that the Devil blood had warped their daughter in the womb. Cursed with reddish skin and a long, serpent-like tail. She was a Tiefling. It was not long afterwards that the father left them for another woman, leaving the Human girl to raise a Tiefling child on her own. The Tiefling girl grew up wandering the Human enclaves of Pteris with her mother before being swept away by the first Tiefling man she'd ever met. This man, too, would abandon her just before the birth of their son, who she named Maverick. Ashamed she had made the same mistake as her mother and too proud to return to her, she traveled with her infant son to the continent of Amusa to start life anew. History Maverick was born in Pteris, but his mother relocated them to Amusa when he was just an infant. His earliest memories are of being raised by his mother in the rural region of Wistness. She did her best to entertain the young boy's curiosity, humoring him with stories of her family's lineage whilst always skirting around the subject of his father (or any Tieflings, for that matter). He loved and revered his mother, but couldn't help but feel deprived of any connection to his Tiefling roots. He lived with his mother in mostly isolation from nearby inhabitants, until a freak accident caused their home to catch fire and claim his mother's life. The cause of the fire was never found. One of the local churches, sympathetic to orphaned children, took him in and placed him in a program intended to help troubled youth. Lacking any ambitions or strong identity of his own, Maverick went through the motions to get accredited by the program as a social worker and become a mentor to children facing similar issues as he had. The program had raised him to believe that his troubled childhood was due to his lack of a conventional family structure. However, his first few months of assignments all seemed to center around egregious cases of abuse or neglect from what should have been model family units, according to the program. These cases often went ignored by the church, who only seemed to take interest in reprimanding non-Human and other unconventional families. He soon became disillusioned by the church's misplaced attention and left the program on bad terms. He set off across the continent, hoping to broaden his horizons and do more good when free from the bureaucratic restrictions of the church. Despite his newfound freedom, he seemed to face hostility wherever he went as a lone Tiefling with no impressive titles to speak of. Other Tieflings were few and far between, and he began to feel truly alone for the first time in his life. He briefly abandoned his aspirations, making ends meat doing various odd jobs and eventually falling into bounty hunting. This job would land him in the port city of Warukami, where he was intercepted by a ragtag crew who invited him to join aboard The Ellipses on a most peculiar adventure. Eager to break his cycle of perpetual struggle and forge an identity for himself, he takes off with his newfound family for new and exciting horizons. Powers and Abilities Like his mother, Maverick can access magical abilities thanks to his Tiefling heritage. He is particularly fond of disguising spells, as they grant him the brief pleasure of blending into a location and not being judged for his appearance. In battle, he favors duplication spells which allow him to appease his trickster tendencies. Religion Maverick's training as a social worker was incredibly imperfect, but it at least taught him the value of listening. Giving others the space to talk had always been the best tactic for uncovering truth. He found children to be exceptional arbiters of truth, as they have not yet been taught by the world to lie. He observed that, of all the Quelmar Dieties, children seemed to most gravitate towards Garl Glittergold without any prodding. Something appealed to them about this peculiar little gnome with the funny name. Garl was more true to them than any other deity. Consequently, Maverick began to accept Garl as his truest deity, as well. Perhaps an unconventional god for a Tiefling to follow, but Maverick would urge other Tieflings to not be fooled by appearances, as they could stand to learn a thing or two from Garl's trickster nature.